fritz haeg

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FRITZ HAEG‘s work has included edible gardens, public dances, educational environments, animal architecture, domestic gatherings, urban parades, temporary encampments, documentary videos, publications, exhibitions, websites, and occasionally buildings for people. Recent projects include Edible Estates – an international series of public domestic edible gardens; Animal Estates – a housing initiative for native wildlife in cities around the world which debuted at the 2008 Whitney Biennial; Sundown Schoolhouse – an itinerant educational program, which evolved out of the Sundown Salon gatherings at his geodesic home base in the hills of Los Angeles; plus the designs, encampments, and scores of Fritz Haeg Studio.

Haeg studied architecture in Italy at the Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia and Carnegie Mellon University, where he received his B. Arch. He is a Rome Prize fellow – in residence at the American Academy in Rome from 2010-2011, a MacDowell Colony Fellow (2007, 2009 and 2010), Montalvo Arts Center fellow (2012), and nominated for National Design Awards in 2009 and 2010. He has variously taught in architecture, design, and fine art programs at Princeton University (2012), California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), Art Center College of Design, Parsons School of Design, the University of Southern California, and Wayne State University in Detroit as the Elaine L. Jacob Chair in Visual Art visiting professor for Fall 2012.

Edible Estates at Tate Modern's Turbine Hall
Haeg has produced and exhibited projects at Tate Modern, London; the Whitney Museum of American Art; The Guggenheim Museum; SALT Beyoğlu, Istanbul; Stroom, Den Haag; Arup Phase 2, London; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Casco Office of Art, Design and Theory, Utrecht; Mass MoCA; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia; the Wattis Institute, San Francisco; the Netherlands Architecture Institute; The Indianapolis Museum of Art; and the MAK Center, Los Angeles; The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum; and the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at MIT among other institutions. His work has been published internationally, including profiles and features in The New York Times, Financial Times, Frieze, Artforum, The Independent, Dwell, Men’s Vogue, BBC, NPR, ABC World News Tonight, CBS Evening News, and The Martha Stewart Show.

Fritz Haeg Studio was first established in New York City in 1995, and then relocated to Los Angeles in 1999, producing everything from designs for homes to a choreographed score for a parade. Some recent projects have included the Bernardi Residence in the Silver Lake hills of Los Angeles featured in the New York Times; the gallery design for peres projects in Los Angeles’ Chinatown; the score for the East Meets West Interchange Overpass Parade (2008), commissioned by the Indianapolis Museum of Art; a ground floor installation Dome Colony X in the San Gabriels (2009) at X Initiative in Manhattan; Something for Everyone (2010), projects throughout the grounds of the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum; and Composted Constructions (2011), a series of fabrications of recycled materials in Den Haag commissioned by Stroom.

Sundown Salon gatherings occurred on periodic Sunday afternoons from 2001-2006 in the geodesic dome on Sundown Drive, galvanizing an extended community of friends, collaborators and peers from Los Angeles and beyond through events, happenings, gatherings, meetings, pageantry, performances, shows, stunts and spectacles. In 2006 it transformed into Sundown Schoolhouse, a self-organized educational environment originally based in the geodesic dome. Now that Haeg is often on the road around the U.S. and abroad for projects, exhibitions and talks, it continues as an itinerant school, and at times a companion to his various initiatives. In 2009 “Salon Colada: Miami” is presented by MOCA Miami and “The Sundown Salon Unfolding Archive” (Evil Twin Publications) is released, documenting the series of events with photos and stories contributed by hundreds of the artists who participated . The 380 page accordion folding book unfurls to become a 140 foot long instant exhibition. In fall 2009 Sundown Schoolhouse: Practicing Moving transformed The Center for the Arts Eagle Rock into an open practice hall for dance, exercise and movement.

Edible Estates was initiated on Independence Day 2005 with the planting of the first in the series of gardens in Salina, Kansas, the geographic center of the United States. Domestic front lawns are replaced with edible landscapes which are then documented in photos, videos, stories, printed materials, and exhibitions. Other regional prototype gardens have since been planted in Lakewood, CA in 2006; Maplewood, NJ and London, UK in 2007; Austin, TX, Baltimore, MD, and Descanso Gardens near Los Angeles in 2008; and in 2009 near New York’s High Line for Chelsea Elliot Houses in Manhattan. The 2010 expanded second edition of the book, “Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn” (Metropolis Books) documents the first eight gardens in the series with stories from the garden owners, and framed by essays from renowned garden writers.

Animal Estates proposes the strategic reintroduction of native animals into our cities with an ongoing series of regional events, publications, exhibitions, and estate designs. The project debuted in New York City at the 2008 Whitney Biennial with commissioned performances and installations in front of the museum, including a 10 foot diameter eagle’s nest perched over the entry canopy. It has since been followed by six other editions in 2008, commissioned by museums and art institutions in the U.S. and abroad including Center for Advanced Visual Studies at MIT, Cambridge; SFMOMA, San Francisco; Casco, Utrecht; Cooley Gallery at Reed College, Portland; and most recently Animal Estates London HQ: Urban Wildlife Client Services at Arup Phase 2 from Oct 2011 – Jan 2012.